Completed Christensen internships can be eligible for the Augsburg Experience.

There are four potential placement sites for these internships. View the site-specific internship positions on the Strommen Center’s AUGPOST website (Search for “Christensen Vocation Intern”) or contact ccv@augsburg.edu to receive a packet of the job positions.

The Christensen Interns will be selected based on strong interest in exploring vocation, call, and career interests in faith-based or service organizations, as well as potential match with the internship site’s needs.

My name is Hannah Schmit, and I am a senior at Augsburg College. I am double majoring in Sociology and Religion with a minor in Biology. I am originally from a small town in northern Wisconsin, so I like to take full advantage of all the things that life in the cities has to offer! In my free-time I enjoy making music, hiking, exploring, reading, and crafting. I am excited to be working with ACYTI because I believe in the program, and I cannot wait to share it with others!

More about the ACYTI Ambassadors

Peace and Hannah are working to share their experience and help connect youth and congregations with ACYTI. If you are interested in learning more about the Youth Theology Institute, or having our Ambassadors visit your congregation to share their experience, please contact us at acyti@augsburg.edu

Hello! My name is Peace Peter. I’m currently a second year here at Augsburg College. I’m a double major in communications and journalism. I am a member of the Pan-African Student Union and I work in the IT-department. I was born in Liberia and I lived in three different countries in Africa before I moved to the U.S. In my free time I love to watch 90’s sitcom especially Full House and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I’ve never eaten popcorn and my favorite American Food is Caesar salad. I am excited to work with the Augsburg College Youth Theology Institute because I am called to spread the word of God.

More about the ACYTI Ambassadors

Peace and Hannah are working to share their experience and help connect youth and congregations with ACYTI. If you are interested in learning more about the Youth Theology Institute, or having our Ambassadors visit your congregation to share their experience, please contact us at actyi@augsburg.edu

Members of the Carnival de Resistance provided opening music for the convocation. They are a traveling arts carnival and ceremonial theater company, a village demonstration project exploring ecological practices, and an education and social outreach project; all focusing on ecological justice and radical theology.

Following Wallis’ address, students Grace Corbin, Winnie Godi, and Nick Stewart-Bloch responded with their own reflections.

Later that day, discussion continued with a community panel, “The Bridge Toward More Just Communities: What Needs to Happen”. The event was moderated by former ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson, and included: Pastor Kelly Chatman, Redeemer Lutheran Church, North Minneapolis; Nora Barr: Augsburg Alumna; Devin Wiggs: Augsburg Student; Fardosa Hassan: Muslim Student Advisor to Campus Ministry, and a response from Jim Wallis.

Many thanks to all of the student respondents, panelists, and Augsburg community for engaging in these important conversations!

This year’s Bernhard Christensen Symposium on September 20 features three opportunities to engage with Jim Wallis, a bestselling author, public theologian, and social activist.

Wallis is president and founder of Sojourners, a nonprofit, faith-based organization whose mission statement calls for “putting faith into action for social justice.” He has written for major newspapers and authors regular columns for Huffington Post and TIME.com. Wallis teaches at Georgetown University and has taught at Harvard University. He served on President Obama’s first White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

In the 21st century there is a plethora of clichés, stereotypes, and over-generalizations about Muslims in Minnesota, where there are also a variety of different ways of being Muslim. In this panel, Professor Abdi and Ph.D. candidate Khan will explore the diversity of Muslims in Minnesota today and the many contexts shaping their lives and identities. Professor Abdi will draw on her recently published book on the Somali diaspora, Elusive Jannah, and Khan will present data from her research on the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Twin Cities media over the last several decades. This is the second in a series on Muslim Identities co-sponsored with the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at the University of St. Thomas. The first, “Muslim Identities in North America,” features Professors Meena Sharify-Funk (Wilfred Laurier University) and Nahid Khan, speaking at 7pm, Monday, September 26, in Woulfe Alumni Hall, University of St. Thomas.

Cawo Abdi

Cawo Abdi is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota and a Research Associate at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Professor Abdi’s research areas are migration, family and gender relations, development, Africa and the Middle East. She has published on these topics in various journals and is the author of a book, “Elusive Jannah: The Somali Diaspora and a Borderless Muslim Identity,” University of Minnesota Press, 2015.

Nahid Khan

Nahid Khan is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication with a religious studies graduate minor at the University of Minnesota. Khan also serves as special consultant to the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at the University of St. Thomas. Active in community interfaith dialogue since the 1980s, with a particular focus on Muslim-Jewish dialogue, she was a Muslim delegate at the North American Interfaith Colloquium held at the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research in 1999 and 2000 and she served for eight years on the board of the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition, an interfaith advocacy group addressing social justice issues in Minnesota. She is also a trained guide for the Collection in Focus program at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and a board member of Mizna, an Arab-American cultural and arts organization based in the Twin Cities.

In addition to viewing one episode of the upcoming National Geographic series, there will be a panel discussion featuring Augsburg leaders of different faith traditions: Dr. Phil Quanbeck II, Dr. Maheen Zaman, and Julian Kritz (current Interfaith Scholar). The panel will be moderated by Rev. Mark Hanson, the new executive director of the Christensen Center for Vocation.